An awesome list offoods chefs hate. I can agree with this sentiment: “Another thing that I just can not warm up to is sweet pickles. To me it seems like a contradiction. When I bite into a crunchy pickle, I expect it to be sour.”

Truth spoken by Tommy: “Journalism isn’t about what we know, it is about what we can verify. Attribution isn’t just some rubber stamp that we seek, mindlessly, in order to get something published. It allows readers to judge the credibility of the information offered.”

Classic: “I am a former Republican. And I wasn’t merely the libertarian, live-and-let-live, fun-at-parties kind of conservative whose primary concern is balancing the budget; I was a spiteful, narrow-minded, fire-breathing paranoid lunatic who questioned the patriotism and morality of my liberal fellow citizens. Recognizing the error of my ways has done wonders for my mental health but left me with constant, unremitting remorse; I really want to go back in time and kick my own ass.”

Agreed: “President Obama’s promise to close Guantánamo was an important commitment that must be honored, and quickly. But it will be nothing more than a symbolic gesture if we continue its shameful policies elsewhere. We can’t go back in time and stop the tragedy of Guantánamo from happening. We can, however, stop it from happening again.”

Lovely and sad story: “The clock with no hands: Because normal time seems suspended in a health emergency. The nurse at a computer with the dark screen: Because records aren’t shared with patients. The doctor with her hands tied: Because one part of the health care system doesn’t communicate with others. Regina Holliday is looking for new walls to paint, but not now. The cold makes the paint too brittle. In the springtime, she’ll take out her colors again. Maybe by then, there will be health care change signed into law. But there will still be stories to tell. “

Well,here’s a thought I can certainly agree with: “After the heavily publicized spinach recall in 2006 because of E. Coli, food safety experts have a special place in their hearts for leafy greens. Slashfood thinks: Just wash your salad! And, there’s more.

Sometimes my quickies link to oldish news, but just such as the first quickie, the sentiment stands the test of time, or the thing is just too neat not to repeat.

I totally agree with this sentiment, and am sad I have posted it so late – “If I were Robert Gibbs, I would open EVERY SINGLE press briefing, from here on out, with a five minute daily athletic/gender report, detailing what activities Obama took part in and what the male-female make-up was. And then I would deliver, daily, right there in the press briefing, a stack of signed affidavits from Hillary, Janet Napolitano, Kathleen Sebelius, and every other major female in the White House, stating that they were asked if they wanted to work out with Obama and Reggie Love this morning but they declined.”

Sound familiar? “A startling petition arrived at the New York City Bar Association in October 2008, signed by 100 men, all locked up without criminal charges in the middle of Manhattan. “ Deplorable. Mr. President, please release those held by the Federal Government without charge. New York, get it together.

Yes please! “What do you think is missing in hip-hop today? KRS ONE: “I am not just saying this because you [a woman] are asking the question, this is my real answer:More women. More women. Not just emcees or b-girls, but women taking control of hip-hop. Let me be culturally-specific- hip-hop’s women should teach hip-hop’s men how to speak to them. Because when we learn how to speak to you, we can learn how to speak to the whole business world. It’s not just about respecting you…it is…but it’s deeper than just respecting another human being. Everytime you degrade a person, you degrade yourself, because you are standing next to that person. You can’t diss a person, and not diss yourself…I should say ’she’s a queen.’ And what does that make me? A king. So now at the end of the day, what’s missing in hip-hop? Knowledge of self, that should only come from women.”

Word! “… it is not empowering for a group of college-age men to tell women what is or is not attractive. It is not helpful for men to point at women and say ‘This one is healthy, that one is not’ … the worst thing I could do is to point to this study and say to all thin women, naturally underweight women, dangerously underweight women, or women with eating disorders, ‘Now, I am the ideal and you are not.’ This is not progress.”

Well said, well asked, thank you VERY much.“ … why do reporters keep reaching to assign significance to these races, even as they acknowledge it may not be there? Any answer to that question is itself speculative, but here’s one idea: it just makes politics more fun. Much as sports fans create extra meaning for games by seeing every choke or victory in moral terms, political journalists make elections more meaningful by threading them into a broader narrative.”

The provocation this time was the fact that I pointed out Keith Olbermann’s fingerbang salute to Carrie Prejean. I actually took it pretty easy on KO, of whom I am a big fan. Unfortunately, some liberals require blind idolatry, even when it runs counter to actual liberalism.

I went on to critique the left’s treatment of Prejean, another big no-no in TBogg-land.

When we last saw Conservative Pet Liberal Tommy Christopher he was getting blog-killed by Big Bunny because he had the blogdacity* to go “shame shame” over Guy Cimbalo’s hatefuck article/post thingy. As it turned out, pretty much anyone who was familiar with Cimbalao’s article shared Tommy’s opinion, but the timing of AOL’s de-Tommyfying was enough to throw the wingnuts into a frenzy.

Well, they’re always in a frenzy, but it was kismet that day because the Mexicans, Muslims, and Negroes were behaving themselves. At least for for a few hours.

Now we see that Tommy has washed up on the shores of the Mediaite (I don’t know how to pronounce it either) blog which is kinda of like the crackbaby lovechild of Politico and Tiger Beat (”Who’s Hot Who’s Not!” “Win a Dream Date with Dreamylicious Jake Tapper!” etc.).

The “wingnuts” in a frenzy? Right, like The Huffington Post, or Howard Kurtz? He also displays the same class that led him to make fun of special needs children last time, tossing his barbs at crack babies here. Real nice.

He also posits that I only defend young, hot, conservative women. You know, like Kevin Jennings or Van Jones. Boing!

True, I was also fortunate enough to land a great gig with Mediaite that permits me to get out of my jammies and into the real world once in a while.

Factual lapses aside, he also goes on to miss the entire point of my post. By attacking Prejean’s tits and masturbatory habits, the left has amplified her importance well beyond what it should be, and made themselves look ugly in the process. Keith Olbermann’s (thankfully non-glistening) fingers may be worth a chuckle to some, but at what price? What average American is going to watch that and say “My, that Keith Olbermann is a clever fellow. Let me probe his views on marriage?”

TBogg says “As to his point that she has been amplified, her book sales (#846) at Amazon tell another story.” I say the problem was never that she was selling books.

Finally, before TBogg tries to accuse someone of being a “Conservative pet liberal,” maybe he should think about elevating his own editorial standards to at least equal Hannity’s. At least he admits he’s “mistaken” when somebody busts him.

What a GREAT idea! “Recognizegood.com was created by the Samaritan Center and high-tech services and products supplier TyRex Group Ltd. earlier this year to raise money for local charities. The site is free to use, but for each recognition of a good deed, TyRex gives the Samaritan Center $1.”

I just got done reading Mediaite’s rundown of the Mike Hendricks saga, and the material to which it links. I have to say, with the amount of virtual ink that has been spilled over this, everyone seems to have missed the most glaring issue.

Although the Bad Pitch Blog tried to hide the identity of the leaker and her firm, Hendricks obviously knew that he had sent the emails to Brandy Ernzen at Ogden Publications. Here’s what she told Poynter Online:

Ernzen told me that she regrets putting Hendricks’ reputation at risk by sending his e-mails to Richard Laermer, one of the people who runs the Bad Pitch Blog. She said she did so because she wanted to “vent” to someone about the e-mail exchange.

“I was shocked at the way [Hendricks’ e-mail] was presented to me, in part because I felt like it was kind of putting down our industry as a whole,” she said. “But from the moment the blog went live I was nauseous. I didn’t like it at all and I realized I made a major judgment error.”

My question is, why is Ernzen expressing “regret” instead of looking for a job? Furthermore, how does Ogden Publications expect to keep any clients or business relationships? Even if you don’t grant that Hendricks had an expectation of privacy, have you ever heard of a company that allows its internal business communications to be used this way?

This whole episode seems to be propelled by Ernzen’s and Bad Pitch Blog’s offense at Hendricks’ air of journalistic superiority over the PR industry. Ironically, they prove him correct in their handling of his email. As Hendricks points out, BPB never even tried to verify the authenticity of the exchange, nor did they reach out to him for comment.

I don’t know a thing about Mike Hendricks as a journalist, beyond the fact that he has been gainfully employed as a professional writer since 1984. Could he have been less of a dick about pointing out that he’s more than qualified to write a press release? Sure. Did he deserve to be pilloried, to have the starvation of his family nearly wished upon him?

Apparently, BPB isn’t so sure. They published this weird pseudo-apology several days later:

8/26 UPDATE: Comments on this post are now closed. Feedback from readers, the ones who’ve identified themselves, has made it clear this is not a post that represents our three years of content here. We’re taking this to heart and we’re already reflecting it in content moving forward.

Due to the tone of the last few anonymous comments, which we’ve left up for posterity, I’ve made the decision to close comments. If someone wants to add their opinion to this post, please feel free to email us at badpitchblog AT gmail DOT com. Thanks. — Kevin Dugan